The Hush Society Presents... by Izzy Matias (best desktop ebook reader .txt) 📕

Our bodies propel forward and jolt backward.

Benji curses. "That’s the second time today!"

"Tough luck, mate," Eric says and guffaws. "Tough luck."

Amber and Cassie lie on the grass.

What on earth…?

Are they all right?

I speed up, stop the car in front of them and get down the van. "You all right?"

"Omigosh!" Cassie screams. "You found us!"

"I thought we were going to have to go all Survivor-mode for a couple of days," Amber says. "I was taking a breather before we split up to find wood for fire."

Benji pushes the door open to which Eric says, "Careful! We don’t wanna be back in the auto repair centre," as he gets down the passenger seat to take his rightful position as designated driver.

Benji pulls Amber into a hug. Cassie gives them a weird look, so he lets go and gives Cassie a quick hug.

I follow suit, and make my hugs short. "What happened to you gals?" I squeeze Cassie’s shoulders.

"It’s a long story," Amber says, hopping back into her rightful spot at the passenger’s seat. "My fault."

"Take all the credit, sure," Cassie says sliding into our row. "You lot came just in time. My mobile konked out." She waves her mobile in the air. No wonder she didn’t have any signal.

"Here, you can loan my power bank," Benji says. He passes a massive power bank to Cassie and she thanks him.

"Now we eat," Eric says with a better mood and steps on the gas. "Boo yah!"

"Is that all you can think of?" Amber says, pulling out a cigarette. "No, ‘Nice to see you ladies. We’re so glad you’re OK.’"

"I put you gals ahead of my stomach for ages," Eric replies. "We looked for you when we could have stopped over and gotten food. That is louder than words."

"Thank you, Eric," Cassie replies with a sweet tone.

"You’re most welcome."

"They’re like siblings that won’t stop arguing with each other," Cassie tells me.

"Makes for an entertaining ride," Benji says.

"Says you," I say. "You weren’t listening to their banter before we hit the auto repair shop. I had to put on my ear mobiles to tune out the noise."

Cassie’s black mobile screen illuminates with its logo. Once she has reconnected, a flood of messages roll in. We sent her numerous messages asking their whereabouts, so I wouldn't be surprised if Benji, Eric, and I were the cause of this message flood.

As she scrolls through her messages, she squeals.

Eric steps on the brakes hard.

"Real smooth, Eric!" Amber quips and they resume their banter.

Benji curses. He looks like he ate a sour lemon. "That's the third time today!"

I can’t help but laugh.

"Sorry for giving you lot a scare," Cassie says.

"So what’s happened?" I ask.

"Callum Ford says he might come to tonight's show," she says and resumes reading the rest of her messages.

They all erupt in shouts of glee, but all I can muster is a "What?"

If Callum comes tonight, he might realise we’re not as great as he thinks we are. Maybe our debut performance—mine in particular—was a stroke of beginner’s luck. There’s no way I’ll be as lucky as that first night tonight.

"Callum seems to be very supportive of The Hush Society," Eric notes.

"We have to up our game tonight," Benji says, excited. "I might just add another tattoo to commemorate the milestone of garnering Callum Ford's attention with our band. We have to take a selfie with him and post it in all our social media outlets."

"We might not even make it in time," I say. "Maybe it's best he comes to another show."

"No way, mate," Benji quips. "Callum should come if he wants to come."

"This could be the night we get discovered and explode all over the Internet," Eric says.

"Will we have enough time to prepare once we get to Bristol?" I ask and note that we’ve eaten into our sound check time, so if we do get there, it’ll be just in time to grab our instruments and play.

"Oh, come on, Cameron!" Amber says. "This is Callum Ford. You make the best of whatever you’ve got."

"It’s not everyday that Callum attends one of our shows," Cassie adds.

I don’t want to think about tonight’s performance unless I’ve no other choice.

"How exactly did you gals get lost?" I ask.

Amber stops quarrelling with Eric and glances at Cassie. "Girl… Shall I or will you?"

"You," I say. That way, Amber will have to use her energy on rehashing the details rather than fighting with Eric. "Though I can’t fathom how you ended up in this side of town. There aren’t any cafes for miles."

"We were going the opposite direction from where you lot were and stopped to ask someone from ‘round here where we could find a good place to have tea," Amber says, "and let’s just say we couldn’t find it. Then Cassie suggested we turn to a street, which led uphill. We were also curious if there were any scenic views. Cassie wanted to photograph them. We thought it was in the same direction as the auto repair centre. If not, we could always use Google Maps."

"We’re both to blame. When we tried to tell you we were lost, there wasn’t any signal at all," Cassie says. "Then my mobile died."

"What is with the rubbish reception in the places we go to?" I say, thinking about Lily’s house and then now this.

"Our adventures make for a good laugh," Cassie injects.

"How was the journey to find scenic views? Did you get good photographs?" I ask.

"They better have," Eric says from the driver’s seat.

"Oh hush," Benji says.

We laugh.

Cassie beams at me, holds out her Fujifilm camera, and switches it on. She scrolls through the feed. Benji squishes himself from the back row to get a proper look.

"You can paint, organise events and now, this. What can’t you do?" I say.

"Someone’s smitten," Eric shouts.

It’s obvious, but to declare it to the world like that? Eric can be thick at times.

I glance at Cassie and give her a sheepish smile and shrug as if saying, "It’s true and I’m not going to